You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

“What if the great challenge for enterprise in the twenty-first century is no longer merely manufacturing the alluring, spotlight glamour of mass-produced opulence, but cultivating a more authentic plenitude that matters in human terms?” says Business writer and thinker Umair Haque in his widely read book Betterness.

What is YouEconomy?

People discarding cubicles, ditching commute, earning extra cash, taking out free time and more often than not smiling more – all of them are part of the YouEconomy.

YouEconomy is on the rise as worldwide strong networks of people are taking the future of work into control. Sharing assets and technology, taking gigs through job sites, launching freelance businesses, coming up with novel methods of creating income – are the elements that define YouEconomy.

“Citizens of YouEconomy are using their experience in innovative ways, picking up new expertise, and exploring never-ending resources for skill building. They’re redefining the concept of living and embracing careers best suited to their inherent passions. While doing this, they are making friends, meeting new people and visiting new places which are influencing their lives in ways they never thought was possible,” illustrated Ajay Singh founder, Stoodnt.inc, a platform that leverages data and technology and engages experts to help students with college admissions in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and other countries.

Are We All a Part of it Already?

With more and more young-Indians venturing into entrepreneurship, we are experiencing a new economic age, called You Economy. It’s time to start anew as instead of finding jobs, people are creating opportunities. Despite the fact that politicians are keen to rejuvenate old industries, the young minds are more towards creating new ones. While Industrialists are hell bent to wring out more productivity from workers and machines, ingenious professionals are busy innovating new products.

If we use apps to hire cars, book rooms or tables in restaurants, we’ve embraced the YouEconomy. If we’ve sold products on eBay, or registered our freelance services on Fiverr, we’ve augmented the sway of YouEconomy in someone else’s life. Those who have not yet come across these applications or took part in them have also been impacted by YouEconomy in some way or the other. According to the 2016 national Pew Research Center Survey, 72 percent of American adults have used at least one shared or on-demand service, with one in five Americans has used four or more of them.

“India in fast catching up says,” Dipanjan Purakayastha, Co-founder omni-transport platform Tygr and O2O arefurbished gadgets marketplace. “If not directly, most of us have someone we love or even live with who uses multiple apps.” He added.

Longing for Meaning in Work is the Groundwork for This New Age Economy

The concept of this new economy thrives on open source. In this reality, you are the developer and individualism coexists with collectivism. “Contests here are open doors for partnership and challenges are recognized customs. Here we have the scope to operate on the leading edge of our values and profit is envisioned in a more expansive spectrum than simple monetary gains,” notified Asoke K Laha, President and CEO Interra Indormation Technologies.

According to Laha, the longing for rationale and meaning in work is fast becoming the groundwork for this new age of business. We are waking up to the reality that each one of us should have more command over our collective economic future than the politicians, industrialists, or bankers.

‘Goodbye Compromise, Hello Consciousness’

“Life in the old economy has been all about adjusting our potential into rigid job descriptions, consuming a diet of sheer conspicuous spending, and accepting the requirement for more productivity. Life in the New Economy is about the equilibrium between ethics and desires. It’s largely about quenching our collective thirst for creating, collaborating, doing better and being better. Experts call this ‘Goodbye Compromise, Hello Consciousness’. Thing new age economy or You-economy squarely puts individuals at the core, the captain economic growth,” he explained.

Parag Agarwal Founder HealthCode.io, world’s fastest growing community for key stakeholders in health, feels in the emerging reality of YouEconomy, one has the liberty to make individual choices and decisions, explore the available choices as opportunities, and to use them as tools of upholding the veracity of his or her true purpose. “It is in that purpose that one finds the zeal for productivity in constructing a better and thriving world,” he added.

Global is now the new local. Societies are linked through values, purpose, and kinship. As an impact of this culture importance, experience, and relationships are emerging as most vital components of products and services. Entrepreneurship is now seen as citizenship.